Amazon’s Whispersync Failure

Why is Amazon failing so badly at releasing Whispersync-enabled[2] Kindle books? Anyone who has ever tried Whispersync knows how compelling the syncing of e-book and audiobook can be. Switching back and forth between your eyes and your ears brings momentum to your reading. A synced e-book / audiobook creates a virtuous circle of reading. You want to read more because you are encouraged by how quickly you can read, a desire which causes you to read more still.

So why does Amazon release so few Whispersync-enabled books? Are the publishers blocking Whispersync? The authors? Is there something wrong with the technology? This seems like a no brainer. The e-book file exists. The audiobook file exists. All Amazon has to do is wrap the appropriate technology and metadata around the two digital files for Whispersync to work. What is going on?